I'm a freelance writer, grad student, and night owl. I share weekly actions anyone can take to fight back against 45's administration. Twitter: @nightowlactivst Member of the Action Alliance: actionalliance.co

2/22/2017

Nightly Actions for Wednesday, February 22, 2017

One-month Anniversary

Tomorrow (technically today, since it's almost 4am) is the one-month anniversary of The Night Owl Activist. I can't believe how much has happened in only one month! It's been a roller coaster ride for sure. Thank you to all of my viewers and subscribers for joining the resistance and fighting against 45 with me. Keep up the good work!

ImmigrationICE Raids
45's plan to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants is likely to trigger waves of lawsuits. The Department of Homeland Security is pushing ahead with what the ACLU calls a "hyper-aggressive mass deportation policy." The administration wants to unshackle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who they say have been "handcuffed" by policies that determined who "could and couldn’t be adjudicated." The ACLU and other groups are vowing to challenge the crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Here's how you can help keep up the fight.

Call your governor. Your state governor has more power than you may realize. They can lobby the federal government and order state authorities to block federal immigration agents. They can also refuse to provide state-level immigration data to the federal government, offering a further layer of protection. Use the phone number and script at the following link to call your governor and urge them to protect undocumented immigrants in your state:https://5calls.org/#issue/recojWy67C4TUrJIF

Call your representative. The "Dreamers" who received legal protection from deportation under President Obama are especially vulnerable to 45. They shared confidential personal information with Homeland Security to get their papers, and now 45's deportation force could use it against them. Members of both parties are co-sponsoring the BRIDGE Act to let Dreamers keep their protected status and stop 45 from using that information to round them up. Use the form at the following link to call your representative and demand that they move the bill forward ASAP: http://www.weekly-resistance.online/past/standWithDreamers.html

Other Immigration Issues

Anti-Chinese Border Policy: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) just put forward a proposal to collect information from the private social media accounts of Chinese visitors entering the U.S. on tourist and business visas. This is yet another attempt to unfairly scrutinize visitors to the U.S. based on race and national origin. Public comments are open until April 24th. Use this form to email CBP and tell them that this proposal is unacceptable:https://advancingjusticela.salsalabs.org/chinesesocialmediacheck/index.html

RAISE Act: Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue have introduced the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act, a bill that would crack down on legal immigration by restricting green cards, barring immigrants from reuniting with families, and ending the diversity visa lottery. If it becomes law, the RAISE Act will cut legal immigration by 50%. Sign this petition to tell the Senate to reject the RAISE Act:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/raise

45's Ties to Russia - Flynnghazi

Investigation

Today, Republican Senator Susan Collins said that she wants former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Most Republicans in Congress have been resistant to conducting a thorough investigation, including House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who is currently spending his time investigating a national park's Twitter account (?!). It's clear that a nonpartisan, transparent, thorough investigation is needed. Here's how you can push to make it happen.

Call the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. This committee currently seems like the most likely path for a thorough investigation. Call the committee at 202-224-1700 and use the script below from re:act to demand a transparent investigation:

I’m calling to say that I believe the American people deserve a thorough, nonpartisan, public investigation into President Trump, Russia, and Michael Flynn. Will you tell me the scope of the current hearings? Will Flynn be called to testify under oath?

Sign a petition. Sign this petition to demand that Congress investigate 45's ties to Russia before his administration is able to cover up its crimes: https://actionsprout.io/6F74D4/

Jeff Sessions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI don't plan to indict Michael Flynn on the premise that, when pressed in his FBI interview, Flynn said that he could not remember for certain whether he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador. There is significant concern that the decision to not prosecute was based on Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions's long involvement with Flynn, 45, and the campaign. DOJ guidelines mandate that the AG recuse himself from an investigation or prosecution if he has a political relationship with any person involved in the conduct of which he is the subject of the investigation or who would be directly affected by the outcome. Here's how you can help get Sessions to step down.

Dakota Access Pipeline: After 45 issued his directive to carry out the DAPL as planned, the Department of the Army announced on February 7th that it will grant the final easement to finish the pipeline. While the Standing Rock camp started coordinated cleanup in January, officials stated that it was moving too slowly. Now the most important thing is the safety and well-being of those being evacuated from Standing Rock, as well as those who choose to stay. Use the phone numbers and script at the following link to call those in charge of the evacuation and make sure that no violence or excessive force is used: http://us14.campaign-archive1.com/?u=542e52557cb249fb2535906ea&id=bc712e4a87&e=afc55cc194

Climate Change: America's continued resistance to renewable energy not only contributes to climate change, but it also hurts our economy, displaces American workers, and puts us behind countries like China, India, Germany, and many others in perhaps the greatest growth industry of the century. Brand New Congress has a plan to convert America to 100% renewable energy and boost the economy. Sign this petition to endorse it: https://actionsprout.io/9A5F15/

Healthcare

Affordable Care Act: Recent polls show that support for the ACA is rising. 45% of Americans now approve of the ACA, while 45% disapprove. Polls also show that more Republicans want to make fixes to the ACA instead of just repealing the whole thing. House Republicans have revealed parts of their plan, which includes remaking Medicaid, but they did not explain how it would be paid for, or how many will be covered. Use the links below from re:act to Tweet your representative and remind them why the ACA should not be repealed:

Reproductive Rights: Oklahoma State Representative Justin Humphrey recently introduced an unconstitutional bill that forces women to get written consent for abortions. When asked why, Humphrey said, "I understand that they feel like that is their body...what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’" Sign this petition to tell Humphrey that women are not "hosts," and denounce his unconstitutional bill: https://actionsprout.io/8D1026/

Events - ICYMI

In case you missed them, here are the recordings for recent resistance conference calls.

CREDO Action Conference Call with Elizabeth Warren: Last night, over 9,000 CREDO members joined a conference call to discuss their ongoing grassroots resistance against 45 with Senator Elizabeth Warren. Listen to a recording of the call here:https://credoaction.com/pages/warren-conference-call/

Sirius XM: Steve Bannon has built a business off of white nationalism, making Breitbart News Daily the first live, conservative radio enterprise to air seven days a week. Sirius XM’s Patriot station is branded as the "True Voices of Conservative Talk Radio" with shows hosted by Glenn Beck and the National Rifle Association (NRA). Sign this petition to tell Sirius XM CEO James E. Meyer to stop profiting from Bannon's bigoted agenda:https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/sirius-xm-stop-profiting-off-of-trump-s-hate

Amazon: Many companies have already dropped their advertising from Breitbart, Steve Bannon's white nationalist propaganda website, but Amazon's ads still appear on the site. Sign this petition to tell Amazon to immediately pull their advertising from Breitbart:https://actions.sumofus.org/a/amazon-stop-investing-in-hate

Voting Issues - Citizens United: The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United allowed wealthy special interests and billionaires to pour unlimited, anonymous money into our elections. Senator Martin Heinrich is co-sponsoring a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United and restore our elections back to voters. Sign this petition to support the amendment:http://nm.martinheinrich.com/page/s/mth-end-citizens-united

Federal Agencies - Hiring Freeze: Yesterday morning, while picking their children up from school, military families received a letter stating that all part-day Child and Youth Services will close due to the federal hiring freeze. Sign this petition to call on 45 to reverse his federal hiring freeze, which negatively impacts veterans and military families:http://action.votevets.org/page/s/hiring-freeze

Social Security - Bernie Sanders's Legislation: 45's new Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, has vowed to destroy Social Security as we know it, but polls show that 72% of Americans support increasing Social Security benefits. Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced new legislation to extend the solvency of Social Security, expand benefits, increase cost-of-living adjustments, and increase minimum benefits paid to low-income seniors. Sign this petition to support this legislation: http://go.boldpac.com/page/s/bernie-social-security

Freedom of Information Act: Starting March 1st, the FBI will no longer accept Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests via email. Anyone seeking public records from the Bureau will have to send requests via fax or snail mail or use a new online portal, which comes with burdensome requirements. The FOIA gives us a legal right to request public records that allow journalists and watchdogs to hold the government accountable. Sign this petition to tell FBI Section Chief David M. Hardy to keep the FOIA email system running and drop arbitrary restrictions from the online portal: http://act.freepress.net/sign/journ_foia_request/